MIGEATIONS OF THE SOUP. 3^1 



Bay, the Scup keep along the northern shore and make almost the entire circuit of the bay before 

 appearing at Quissett Harbor and Wood's Holl, their appearance being always later there than at 

 the head of the bay or about New Bedford. Whether it is the flsh alone that belong to Buzzard's 

 Bay that enter it, or whether others pass directly between the Elizabeth Islands and Martha's 

 Vineyard, is not yet satisfactorily ascertained. We know, however, that they reached Waquoit, 

 the first pound on the north side of Vineyard Sound, in 1871, as early as April 25, but that the 

 largest numbers were taken from the 10th to the 13th of May. This gives about a week's differ- 

 ence between this point and ^Newport. 



" On the south of Vineyard Sound the fish are netted at Menemsha Bight, where there are 

 several large and effective pounds, three days or a week earlier than at Lombard's Cove, and 

 nearly two weeks earlier than at the Wood's Holl pound. 



"According to Mr. Luce, breeding fish enter the tidal ponds on the north side of Martha's 

 Vineyard (formerly in large numbers), where they spawn, accomplishing this operation by the end 

 of June, the ponds being filled with young in August. As soon as frost comes these fish leave for 

 their winter abode. 



"A new point was made in the capture of Scup by the fishermen of Block Island during the 

 spring of 1877. Heretofore Scup have been taken in quantities only in the vicinity of the shores, 

 being captured in immense numbers in traps at Seconnet Eiver and by pounds elsewhere, and 

 sometimes by seines. The capture by hand-lines is the more common, and may be carried on at 

 some distance from the shore; but it has never been taken very far from the land. On the occasion 

 referred to, some fishermen, while engaged in capturing mackerel off Block Island, saw what they 

 supposed to be a school and put their purse-seine around it. To their surprise they found their 

 net to contain Scup exclusively. Of these they took at one haul six hundred barrels of one 

 hundred and eighty pounds each, all of marketable size and bringing a good price in the New 

 York market. 



"As a general rule, in their movement along the coast the Scup are not found in water shal- 

 lower than a few fathoms; and it sometimes happens, in the course of heavy storms, that in con- 

 sequence of the discoloration of the water near the shore the fish move farther out to sea, and on 

 such occasions measurably escape falling into the traps. 



"The Scup is very largely a bottom feeder, and depends very much upon mollusks or shell- 

 fish for subsistence. I have been informed by the fishermen that they may frequently be seen 

 feeding upon small bivalves of different species, rooting them out of the sand or mud. The 

 stomachs of about two hundred one and one-half pound Scup were examined at one time in the 

 beginning of September. These almost exclusively contained shells of various genera, with some 

 worms and a few amphipods. Its especial food appears to be small shells, crabs, shrimp, and 

 possibly small fish. The abundance of such food on the south coast of New England must be 

 prodigious to support the swarms that even now are found there. It is in regard to this species 

 that a close time is desirable, so that access to the spawning-grounds and freedom from disturb- 

 ance may be enjoyed by a sufficient number to maintain the species. 



" Like all other small fish, they are devoured by their more rapacious fellows, and very largely 

 by blueflsh, notwithstanding a general impression to the contrary. The extent to which this 

 takes place will be considered under the head of the bluefish. Halibut, cod, sharks, and other 

 ground-feeders likewise use them up in great numbers. 



" As already remarked, the breeding flsh do not appear to feed on their first arrival, being 

 then too much occupied in carrying out the reproductive function. As, however, they can be taken 

 with the hook about the Ist of June, we may infer that this is about the time they begin to feed 



